The Sun and How to Observe it Author: Jamey L Jenkins Publisher: Springer ISBN: 978-0-387-09497-7 Price: £21.99 (Pb), 206pp
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When I first came to solar observing 40 years ago, there was only one book for the practical solar observer – W M Baxter’s The Sun and the Amateur Astronomer. This is something the author of this new book acknowledges. Springer has now produced this third book on solar observing for the amateur.

Jenkins is an American amateur observer and he has written a very interesting book full of information for the solar enthusiast. There are tips on types of observatories (roll- off-roof preferable) and an easy little formula for calculating the distance from the eyepiece to the projection screen to get a 150mm projected image of the Sun; a real aid when building a projection box.

The author describes how a solar hydrogen-alpha filter works – very interesting to the beginner, and the old-time observer alike. There are fact-filled pages on digital solar photography – a method the author prefers to gather his daily sunspot counts rather than whole-disc solar drawing, a method he hardly covers at all. This does let an otherwise good book down a bit as many imaging observers still produce daily whole-disc drawings plotting the position of spots and calculating a sunspot number. For example, the professional Catania Observatory in Italy still publish daily disc drawings.

Being a Springer book, it is very well illustrated, with many of the images supplied by the author himself.

Although just recently published it is already ‘dated’; Coronado have stopped producing the calcium light version of their Personal Solar Telescope. The solar section of the British Astronomical Association have a worldwide network of reporting solar observers, not just UK-based contributors. I feel the daily solar ephemeris for position angles (P°, B°, L°) until January 2012 unnecessary. These are minor quibbles. Would I recommend this book? If one already has Lee Mcdonald’s solar observing book, (also published by Springer) it would be difficult to justify the purchase of another with a similar theme but if you are new to solar astronomy, this book will be a good guide to observing our nearest star.

Brian Halls